If you have been around these pitches long enough, you’ll remember FIFA titles offering demos that let you play couch co-op Kick Off with select teams. This has been absent since the switch to EA FC games, with free trials replacing it.
Here's how to access the free trial for FC 26 and whether you can expect the old-fashioned demo.
How to play FC 26 free trial
To play the FC 26 free trial, you need to subscribe to EA Play. All subscribers get a similar trial for most newly released EA games, and this is no exception.
Once you have subscribed to EA Play, head to the game's store page on your platform, and there should be an option to download the trial. Unlike demos, this is a full game that you can try for 10 hours. Any progress you make in those hours is also carried upon full release.
For Xbox players, EA Play is included in Xbox Game Pass Ultimate, so you don't have to subscribe if you already have Microsoft's offering.
Keep in mind, EA Play is the base subscription for EA games. There is an expensive EA Play Pro that'll give you full access to all EA games, including FC 26.
Will FC 26 get a demo?
Judging by the past trends, it is unlikely FC 26 will get a demo. The last time we saw a demo released around launch was with FIFA 20.
With the trial and the betas, a demo makes little sense to EA, especially when you consider the games tend to find themselves in subscriptions like Game Pass or PlayStation Plus at some point.
EA did announce "FC 25 Showcase," which is essentially a demo where you can play select mode. It was released months after launch, and we may get something like this for FC 26, although there are no official hints or rumors to go about for now. We might even get it earlier than usual, depending on how the post-release pans out for the game.
That's everything you need to know about the free trial version of FC 26, as well as details on the potential demo.
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